


Sleeping Arrangements

by Pandora (paperclipbutterfly), WillyPilgrim



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Gen, Judy is not, Nick is a heavy sleeper, Sleep, Sleepovers, Watching Someone Sleep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:01:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29074494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paperclipbutterfly/pseuds/Pandora, https://archiveofourown.org/users/WillyPilgrim/pseuds/WillyPilgrim
Summary: Judy and Nick come back to the station after a long sting, opting to use the off-duty sleeping area rather than trek home after a day of no rest. As it would seem, however, Nick is a little more active in his sleep than Judy could have expected.Seriously... how is there only one bed??
Relationships: Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde
Comments: 40
Kudos: 60





	Sleeping Arrangements

**Author's Note:**

> A conversation with Pilgrim in the ZAA Discord server generated a plot bunny of hilarious composition. After a few writing sessions together, this is what we ended up concocting for you folks. Please enjoy!

There was only one bed.

Well… there was only one bed _left._

Judy and Nick both knew when they were assigned to this drug raid that they were probably kissing the rest of the weekend goodbye, but that’s how the chips fell sometimes. A full twenty-four hour sting operation later resulted in a success, with a warehouse full of nip and loco cocoa bits seized, along with over half of the runners in custody. Their whole operation was cut in half with this one raid. That was great news for the city.

Not so great news for their REM cycles.

By the time they made it back to the precinct to doff their gear, neither of them had the energy nor inclination to make their way home. Yawning constantly and dragging their steps, they made their way to the station’s off-duty sleeping area. As they stepped through the door, however, they found that most of the room’s cots had been preempted by Higgins and Delgato. The hippo had two pulled together for himself, and the big lion was sprawled out on the other.

Which left only one.

They looked at it, and then at each other.

Nick gave a yawn and then smiled vaguely, eyes already more than half-way closed. “You go ahead and take it, Carrots.”

She returned the yawn and shook her head hard to wake herself back up. Well… as much as was possible, anyway. “No, you have it. You had to do that… thing with the… guy… a mattress would do you good.”

He gestured obliquely at the floor. “Eh, I’ve slept rough plenty of times before. I'll make do with the rug.”

Judy, with half-lidded eyes, thumped her foot. “I’m not sleeping in a bed while you sleep on the floor.”

“And I’m not sleeping in a bed while _you_ sleep on the floor,” Nick shot back. “You’ll get stepped on or something equally dumb, dumb bunny.”

She crossed her arms. “How can I sleep _at all_ if I know you’re not sleeping comfortably, _dumb fox_?”

“If you think the floor is uncomfortable, then you should _definitely_ take the bed.”

The whispered bickering continued back and forth. They were so completely focused on trying to outthink the other through their fatigue that they didn’t notice when the door opened and Wolford staggered in. They were still going at it when he dropped his gear by the wall and sidestepped right through their conversation. It wasn’t until he flopped face-first down onto the bed with a loud “OOF” that they finally snapped their attention to what had just happened. Nick and Judy looked at him, appalled.

“Wolford, what the hay?” Judy demanded as the wolf rolled over. “That was ours!”

“Don’t see your names on it,” he murmured. “You snooze… you don’t snooze.”

They looked forlornly at their lost cot and then back at each other as the wolf’s breathing deepened into the unmistakable sounds of slumber.

“Well,” Nick said and bit back another yawn. “We didn’t make our bed, so we don’t get to lie in it.”

“Guess that’s that.” Judy looked around and her shoulders slumped. “Looks like we’re both sleeping rough tonight.”

Nick patted her head gently. “Unlike all the other times I’ve slept rough, at least this time I’m in good company.”

She gave him a sleepy smile in return. They shed the outer protective layers of their uniforms and equipment belts as quietly as they could. Most of it they left in a pile by the wall, except for their jackets. They rolled them into makeshift pillows and set them out next to each other against the wall and towards the back so they didn’t have to worry about getting tripped over. The last of their energy finally petering out, Judy and Nick exchanged a weary “Goodnight.” They curled themselves up, and were asleep before their heads even hit the pillows.

* * *

Judy was used to sleeping with company. It was a basic fact of warren life. She often found herself sleeping at least near some of her younger family members, which meant sleeping with one ear open for unusual, unnatural, and possibly even dangerous noises. So, when she started hearing a strange, soft kind of _gurgling_ , she snapped awake immediately. It didn’t seem a dangerous noise, but possibly still an urgent one. She rubbed her sticky, tired eyes and scanned around the dim room. Nothing seemed amiss until her gaze came to rest on the big heap of orange directly across from her, and despite her exhaustion she nearly burst out laughing.

Nick had started out in a normal position lying face up with his head on his makeshift pillow, but it seemed he didn’t stay that way. He was flipped upside down, his rump and tail high in the air, and his knees tucked up into his chest. His face was smushed downwards into what remained of his makeshift pillow, and it was hard to tell whether or not his muzzle had dug completely into the carpet. Both of his arms were swept out wide to the side, apparently helping to keep his balance.

She put her paw to her mouth to stifle the laughter and shook her head. _Oof… he’s going to feel that in the morning_ , she thought. She wrestled with herself momentarily and then got to her feet. She tucked his right arm down into his side and gave a light shove against his hip. He tipped over onto his side and his face rolled with him. Everywhere on his now unrolled jacket-pillow was sopping wet with drool.

 _Ewwww…_ She would have readjusted the pillow for him, but… not now. He’d just have to deal with the inevitable bed-head in the morning.

She went and grabbed a spare blanket from one of the stacks by the front and threw it over him. Maybe that would keep him from ending up in a similar position later on tonight.

Once that was finished, she went back to her spot, re-rolled her jacket back into a tight ball for her pillow and settled down once again. The silly mental image of her partner made her smile as she once again drifted off to sleep.

* * *

_THUNK._

Judy leapt to her feet even before her eyes opened. The blunt sound was so close it seemed like her head was about to be struck. Adrenaline raced through her veins, her heart pounding wildly. The _THUNK_ came again, and she spun in its direction. Her shoulders sagged and legs wobbled as the jolt to her system was extinguished as quickly as it had flared.

It didn’t seem possible that Nick could wind up in an even more ridiculous position than earlier, but somehow he’d managed it. He was now flipped away from the wall towards the room with his head where his feet used to be and his legs scaled up the wall. He was once again belly down with his chin to the floor and his arms stretched out in front of him. His tail curved over his back until it sat on his head. It appeared that the fur from his tail was tickling his nose, which caused his foot to give an involuntary kick. The noise that had woken Judy up was apparently the sound his leg made rapping against the wall. The damp jacket was nowhere to be seen, and the blanket that she’d draped him with was wrapped completely around his middle.

Judy crossed her arms and lightly thumped her foot against the floor. This was starting to get ridiculous. As her irritated thumping began to slow down, her drooping eyes started to get the better of her. She jerked herself back from nodding off while standing up and shook her head hard. She lightly kicked him in the side.

“Nick, wake up,” she said, and tapped him with her foot again. “Come on, Nick, I need you to get up.”

If anything, Nick fell even more deeply asleep, not moving except to mumble softly, _“…multitudines opportudinous…_ ” from the side of his mouth.

Judy heaved a heavy sigh. _This is the last time. After this, his backaches are his own doing._

She walked over to his head and grabbed both of his paws. With a light grunt of exertion, she hauled his body away from the wall. His legs flopped to the carpet as they left the wall and she spun him around like a lazy Susan. She didn’t have the energy to bring him around a full 180 degrees, but at least now he wasn’t folded in half backwards with his legs up. Judy dropped his paws down and rolled him onto his side so he was now parallel to the wall facing the room. Nothing could be done for the blanket; it was more twisted up than he was, so getting it out from around him now would be impossible.

Judy gave her work one last once over and nodded firmly. Okay, that’s done. Hopefully he wouldn’t get all twisted up again. How did he keep ending up in these crazy positions? How long did it take to end up that way? Would she fall asleep again only to have her work undone again the second she closed her eyes?

She sat herself down against the wall. She figured she could watch for at least a few minutes to make sure he didn’t go contorting into a pretzel again. A few more minutes awake wouldn’t be a big deal, especially if it meant that a longer block of unbroken sleep would follow.

Judy stared at the slumbering fox, so blissfully unaware of all the effort she was putting into his comfort right now. _He’d better thank me in the morning_ , she thought, and yawned hard as she continued to stare at the as yet unmoving fox. _So far so good. Just a few more minutes… just a few more…_

* * *

There was a warm sensation on Judy’s nose which interrupted her next breath. She snorted and rubbed her face, cracking one eye open grudgingly. It didn’t seem that she’d kept herself seated upright as her last memory replayed from however long ago. Habit made her think to check her phone for the time, but she resisted it. She didn’t even want to know how much sleep she’d lost at this point. The reason for the most recent lost hours formed behind her eyes and she opened her eyes fully to survey where her partner was now. When they focused fully, she breathed a little sigh of relief. He wasn’t far away, and it seemed he was still lying on his side where she had left him. This latest awakening must have been her own fault; she was much closer to his nose and he was now breathing his deep, steady breaths right into her face.

That should have been it. She should have just immediately rolled over and gone back to sleep. But that’s not what she did. Curiosity demanded a full review of where the rest of the fox was at this particular moment, and her gaze went looking for it.

Then found it.

She stared completely dumbfounded. It was… impossible. _How…?!_

The front of his body was exactly where she left it, but for as normal as the top half of him looked was how _outrageous_ the bottom half of him was. As she looked just behind his head, she found his feet. How were his feet on his head? Somehow his entire lower torso had twisted around nearly 180 degrees and now his feet were between his ears, and the tops of his toes were touching his eyebrows. His tail was tucked beneath his thighs and his knees were digging into his ribcage. And yet somehow… she couldn’t fathom exactly how, but _somehow_ … Nick was still completely, utterly unconscious.

Judy blinked, and blinked again, mouth open in disbelief. She threw her paws up. _Forget it!_ That was it. She was done. No more, nuh uh, no way. He wanted to practice contortions in his sleep? _Fine._ He could have it his way. If he was just going to keep undoing all her hard work keeping him from an apocalyptic backache come sunrise, then he could just deal with it.

She grabbed for her jacket again and rerolled it with _gusto_ , turned away from the red pretzel that Nick had somehow become, and was more than ready to fall asleep once more. She scrunched her nose and squinched her eyes shut so tight it hurt, trying—and then failing—to get the sound of his rhythmic breathing out of her head. The crazy twisted positions that he was actually… sleeping through… _How?_ Would he really wake up in howling pain from this? Had to! How could he not? As much as she wanted to close her eyes and forget that she’d witnessed any of this, that wish had become an impossibility.

How could she sleep at all knowing he wasn’t sleeping comfortably?

* * *

An alarm somewhere nearby went off. The larger mammals began to stir, the cots squeaking and groaning beneath them as they rolled over and sat up. Someone hit the overhead lightswitch by the door and half the room was bathed in fluorescent light.

Nick blinked his eyes in the now overwhelming brightness; they didn’t quite have full focus just yet. He gave a wide, tongue curling yawn and rolled himself over, untwisting his arms and legs as he went until he was back to a normal, seated position. He took a look around and found his partner sitting upright in the fetal position nearby.

“Mornin’, Carrots,” he said, and reached his arms overhead for a hearty stretch. “Already awake? What a good sleep, huh? Didn’t I tell you the carpet would work fine? Haven’t slept that great in a long time.”

She didn’t say anything at first, though a very low chirring noise rumbled in her throat as she glared daggers at him. Nick gave her a closer look and was about to eat those words for breakfast. She seemed to already be wide awake, but her eyes were bloodshot and her fur stuck out at strange angles around her cheeks. “Yikes, Carrots, what’s got you all bent out of shape?” Her eye twitched and her brow furrowed upon hearing that. Nick winced. “I didn’t keep you up with any snoring, did I?”

She gave him the dirtiest of dirty looks, tightened her grip around her knees, then blinked hard before staring off at nothing.

“No. No, you did not.”


End file.
